Thursday, August 17, 2017

Executioners from Shaolin, Liu Chia Liang, 1977

I don't know why I never watched a Liu kung-fu film except for 36 Chambers. Maybe I unconciously held back until I was ready. Executioners immediately won me over, not only because its Bazinian approach to action (coupled with a magnificent use of the zoom lens), but also because of its organic feel. A world, in which every thought, every impuls is immediatly translated into choreographed physical movement. Also a world which is thoroughly sexualized, but somehow never in an obscene way. In the end, everything comes down to the (dialectically mediated) opposition of clenching one's own thighs vs kicking someone else's balls.